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The Archivist
The Archivist is a mysterious being at the center of an ARG in the official The Messenger Discord. He was lost wandering parallel universes until he was brought back to The Void. His moniker was "The Alchemist" before he became known as "The Archivist." Pre-Void November 20, 2018 The Version 1.0.4 update released on November 20, 2018. On that day, The Shopkeeper chatted in Soleil's Twitch stream of The Messenger. The Shopkeeper revealed the existence of an unknown character named "The Archivist." November 21, 2018 In the PC version of The Messenger, the dialogue files are easily accessed from a folder called "StreamingAssets." * Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Messenger\TheMessenger_Data\StreamingAssets * GOG:C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\The Messenger\TheMessenger_Data\StreamingAssets Before the Version 1.0.4 update, there were only 3 dialogue files. * Credits.tsv, which contains the credits. * Loc.tsv, which contains cutscene text, Quarble death text, menu text, and some credits-related text. * LocDialog.tsv, which contains the character dialogue and generic narration box text. The Version 1.0.4 update introduced 2 new dialogue files. * Loc_Plus.tsv, which contains various menu texts involving some of the newly-introduced features (button rebinding, New Game +, Prophet hints in the scroll, and the Jukebox). * LocDialog_Plus.tsv, which contains new generic narration box text, Shopkeeper text, and Quarble text. However, the "LocDialog_Plus.tsv" file has a secret message, hidden hundreds of empty lines below the normal game dialogue. This message does not ever appear within the game itself and is only found within the game files. When The Archivist's secret dialogue in the dialogue files was discovered by Soleil, a new text channel in the official The Messenger Discord appeared, called #the-void. This text channel acted mysteriously, popping in and out of existence and sometimes floating up and down the list of channels. Pictures could not be uploaded to this channel, unlike with the other text channels. When members posted a few comments into #the-void, #the-void would disable the ability to post further comments. #the-void would disappear and return at random times, with any previous messages completely erased. And eventually, no one could comment in #the-void, with one exception; Soleil was granted a role called "Loremaster," which allowed her to comment in #the-void. #the-void channel would frequently pop in and out of existence, and if commented in, would force-disable any further comments until its next reappearance. December 8, 2018 The Picnic Panic DLC trailer was released on December 8, 2018. The trailer showcases Ninja's adventures in the tropics. And at the 0:22 mark of the trailer, a splash text image titled "VOODOO MAGIC" appears in large stylized letters, corresponding to The Archivist's message, "...use the voodoo magic word, it was etched in stone somewhere in the tropics..." After the words "VOODOO MAGIC" appear in the trailer, Ninja jumps through a circular time rift, transforming the world from 8-bit to 16-bit. He runs forward, passing by a stone slab in the background. This stone slab has runes etched into it, using the in-game alphabet. When translated, the stone slab reads "TUWHERA." When #the-void reappeared, the word "TUWHERA" was posted into it. A new member named "TheArchivist" joined the Discord, a person with the "Loremaster" role. The Archivist posted messages in #the-void on December 8, 2018. By December 11, 2018, the "Loremaster" role was removed from Soleil, as the "Loremaster" role was transferred back to The Archivist. The Void The Archivist used #the-void channel as a means to communicate with the community. No one could post in #the-void channel except for The Archivist, but members could add Discord emoticons as reactions to his comments. Furthermore, after The Archivist finished posting messages for the day, he would completely leave the server. Each time, he would join solely to post his messages, then leave the server. December 8, 2018 December 11, 2018 December 14, 2018 December 20, 2018 January 8, 2019 January 9, 2019 January 23, 2019: The Events Erased from History An overwhelming number of VoteO votes overtook the poll before proper discussions about the vote could take place. Some discussions took place about the preference of VoteX by some of the more active members, but the poll was already extremely lopsided towards VoteO and looked like there was no chance for the other poll options. Multiple members expressed disappointment about the lack of proper discussion. This caused The Archivist to message Thierry to restrict access to #the-void, making #the-void only viewable to members with the Ninja Discord role. However, The Archivist kept messaging Thierry even after this change was made. The Archivist made another request, to reset the vote in #the-void. But a few minutes later, The Archivist expressed his anger. The Archivist deleted his original poll, replacing it with a new, unfavorable poll. During this stretch of time, the votes fluctuated many times, in an attempt to keep balance. When the balance was tipped, many members cooperated together, offering to remove their vote or to add their vote to the appropriate poll option. Members coordinated together to figure out the best way to keep the poll in balance while also getting as many people as possible to participate in the vote so that they could all share the vanity role, "Voidmender." As discussions took place in the #ninjas text channel, one member, Kammesennin, offered to give up his vote if it came down to the wire. Kammesennin received a private message from The Archivist. As time drew closer to the deadline, The Archivist began a countdown, and the voting became more frantic. At 5:45 PM, #the-void channel completely disappeared. Time passed with unease, as votes had changed during the last few moments, and it was unclear if someone had tipped the balance at the last second. But a few minutes later, members noticed that those who participated in the vote had a new vanity role, "Voidmender," which shared the same green color as The Archivist's "Loremaster" role. Those who participated but removed their vote in order to keep the vote in balance, did not receive the vanity role, "Voidmender." About half an hour later, #the-void came back. All messages posted in #the-void during January 23, 2019, were completely removed and replaced with the following message. Some time later that day, The Archivist was kind enough to award those who sacrificed their vote the "Voidmender" role anyways. From that day forward, #the-void would remain only visible to members with the Ninja role. The next day on January 24, 2019, the reasoning for The Archivist's anger the previous day was described more clearly by Thierry in the #ninjas text channel. January 24, 2019 January 25, 2019 In the morning, VoteX and VoteO were briefly tied. The Archivist posted this message. Eventually, VoteX eked out a victory by 1 vote. The Archivist deleted his message and replaced it with the following message. February 4, 2019 February 5, 2019 February 7, 2019 One special day, The Archivist hopped out of #the-void text channel to deliver a very important react into the #ninjas text channel. February 14, 2019 February 15, 2019 Clockwork Concierge the Moderator Note: Some messages were omitted for readability. The Clockwork Concierge eventually took over The Archivist's role for ARG-related activities. After 500 members joined the official Discord server, Clockwork Concierge was successfully recruited to the server, where he serves as a bot and a moderator. He (mostly) uses dialogue boxes as a form of communication rather than just plain text. March 12, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge cleaned and rearranged some of the channels, such as renaming the #ninjas text channel to #ninja-village. The Clockwork Concierge chatted with members, and he explained that he was sent to the server by The Archivist. March 15, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge dropped a hint that The Archivist told the Concierge to guard an evil object inside of the Clockwork Castle. Paraphrasing of the deleted message: The first asterisk word was blue, like the name of a friendly character. The second word was red, like the name of something related to evil. The first asterisk word was six letters long, and the second word had an apostrophe, according to Boo, a person who was able to memorize part of the message before it was deleted. March 22, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge received a message from The Archivist to deliver to Phil. Thierry intercepted the message in stead of Phil, and per the Clockwork Concierge's request, Thierry closed down #the-void channel, since it was too expensive to maintain while The Archivist was away on a dangerous quest. Trivia * Some details about The Archivist were revealed in the "Sabotage end of year Q&A 2018" video. ** The Archivist recruited SaboTeam to tell stories. ** The Archivist is an immortal being. ** The Archivist is cataloging all of the events of the world of The Messenger. ** The first step in The Archivist's grand plan was to expose people to Ninja's world, and to recruit those people as Messengers. Gallery March 12, 2019 message2.png message3.png message4.png message5.png message6.png message7.png message8.png message9.png message10.png message11.png message12.png message13.png message14.png message15.png message16.png message17.png message18.png message19.png March 15, 2019 message28.png message29.png message30.png March 22, 2019 message81.png message82.png message83.png message84.png ru:The Archivist Category:ARG Category:Lore